Chapter 512: Foreplay of Rebellion
Chapter 512: Foreplay of Rebellion
"Are all these here to ask for autographs?" Morden stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. His room was a superior king-size room with a balcony on the third floor, so he had a clear view of what was going on below.
The Ringhotel Seehof is located in Charlottenburg, a famous tourist attraction in Berlin, known as the "Rose of Baroque Architecture". At the same time, it is very close to the Imperial Street and Parker Exhibition Company, so no matter what activities are held, as long as there is money, it will be listed as the first reference hotel.
To celebrate the publication of more than 10 copies of "The Holy Mountain" in Germany, Morden held a book signing event at the Hugendubel bookstore (square store) in front. At that moment, people gathered in groups of three or five in the square, including at least forty or fifty Germans holding books.
Morden turned and left the balcony, and said to the agent Konteka who was handling miscellaneous matters beside him, "You know, my hands will ache from signing too many signatures."
"I heard that "The Holy Land Mountain" was launched in Germany half a month ago. There were long queues in two bookstores in Berlin because of the book. It is normal to see such a scene now." Konteka said with his eyes back. His eyesight was a little poor. He looked at the square from the balcony for a distance and could not see clearly. He could barely make out that he seemed to be holding something in his hand?
"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Morden," said Konteka. "These are the troubles of being a famous writer."
Morden was enjoying these little annoyances, waiting for a call, and arriving at the book signing event. It was completely different from what he had imagined.
There were only a few readers at the scene, and Morden was surprised. What happened? Didn’t the readers in the square know the time of the book signing?
Konteka immediately asked the publisher what was going on. The publisher responded quietly, "Please rest assured, sir. Our publisher has made special arrangements and will not disappoint Mr. Morden."
Morden is also an old man among writers. He has experienced many ups and downs. Of course he knows that special arrangements mean hiring internet trolls to support the event, which is nothing big.
Can……
"I saw a lot at Charlottenburg Palace Square..."
Before he finished speaking, the staff of the publishing house said thankfully, "The Chinese writer Gu Lu will hold a writer's meeting in the square in about two hours. They should all be Gu Lu's readers."
"If the events conflict in time, it will be much more troublesome for us to arrange them. Gu Lu is very famous in Germany." Finally, worried that the other party might not understand, the staff member added another sentence.
Two or three months ago, Gu Lu of the World Youth Forum served as a consultant to the Youth Strict Education Committee. Germany is also an open-minded person, knowing that you have to give benefits to ask people to do things, so thirty or forty of Gu Lu's short stories (Liu Cixin; Ray Bradbury; Aimee; and Zweig) have been translated and introduced into Germany.
This caused quite a stir in the German literary world, with the German newspaper Die Welt calling Gu Lu "the master of Chinese short stories." As mentioned earlier, reports by mainstream and official media can make passersby more curious.
"What's wrong, Mr. Morden? You don't look well." The capable staff member asked.
"I just didn't expect that they would be waiting in the square two hours before the show starts. Haha, they are really energetic." Morden tried hard to control his expression. If they were not communicating in English, they would have suspected that they had heard it wrongly.
"I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get a spot. I heard that the meeting was originally held in a bookstore. But there were too many people who made reservations, so we moved to another location." The staff member said, noting the clock on the wall that it was almost time.
"Mr. Morden, I'll go make some special arrangements." The staff member left promptly.
This time, the gap is too big and Morden can’t accept it!
"Morden--" Agent Konteka consoled, "Now at least our hands won't be sore."
Is there anyone who comforts people like you? Mo Deng almost couldn't breathe. He looked at the other party and sneered.
Then he said, "It doesn't matter. No matter how famous a person is, his "Lord of the Rings" cannot compare to my "The Sacred Mountain". The author still has to rely on his works to speak for himself!"
He now really wanted to know how his die-hard book fan Micki was doing.
Mixi actually flew to Mexico City that day and bought the Lord of the Rings books.
She even went to Rosario Castellanos Bookstore, the largest bookstore in Latin America, because she was worried that small bookstores would not be able to sell their books. Obviously, Mikki was worried, because Ovi's global sales were quite good, and Puffin Books had strong distribution capabilities.
The Lord of the Rings is not only placed in the most conspicuous position, but also has an exquisite poster. In the picture, a wizard wearing a blue pointed hat, a gray cloak, and a white beard down to his waist falls into the boiling magma.
All the promotional posters were made by experts, with a very vivid image, with a line of words poured out from the boiling magma:
"A landmark fantasy work? The publicity is getting more and more outrageous now."
Mixi began reading on the plane with a critical eye.
If it was a work by Morden, she would definitely not watch it while traveling because she would be very tired and it would be difficult for her to concentrate 100%.
When reading "The Lord of the Rings", the first thing you see is a "preface" in two languages, one is English and the other is an unfamiliar language.
"Could this be the text created by a Chinese writer?" Mikki didn't feel surprised, but showed a look of contempt as if he had seen something unorthodox.
[Under the firmament, the kings of the elves hold the Three Rings,
The Seven Rings are for the Dwarf Kings in the Stone Temples.
Mortals are given nine commandments.
The Dark Lord of the Shadow holds the One Ring in Mordor.
One precept governs the rest, gathers and summons the other precepts,
Into the shadowy land of Mordor shall they be gathered.]
The story begins with the ring. The Hobbit Baggins celebrates his 111th birthday and invites Gandalf to the party. Baggins has a mysterious ring, and Gandalf immediately recognizes it as the legendary One Ring. It must be destroyed, so Frodo (Baggins' nephew and the heir of the ring) embarks on a journey to destroy the One Ring.
"It's a very old-fashioned plot," commented Mikki.
But what really made Mixi serious was the character. Everyone could not resist the temptation when faced with the One Ring, but everyone's choice was different.
Even Gandalf could not resist. When Frodo wanted to give the ring to Gandalf for safekeeping, the latter had the desire to use the ring to improve Middle-earth, and he immediately refused.
After Sam briefly put on the ring, he became a hero in his fantasy, holding a sword and leading thousands of troops to defend the world.
The illusions seen by everyone are different, and some are even positive desires.
Boromir was once tried to steal the ring, and he believed that the One Ring was the only way to defeat evil. Such a nasty character died in a battle with the orcs, and he died to protect his teammates.
This is not the way to write a character arc, which is when a character's personality grows or changes through events. But this way of writing is to show the charm of the character. No real person is perfect, and has both advantages and disadvantages.
Just as the evil Uruk leader Azog would call him a "great warrior". Uruks are war machines transformed from orcs.
"You are really good at portraying characters, and you have captured the charm of Boromir."
Mixi realized that he should respect Gu Lu a little more, because even if he was not good at writing fantasy works, he was still a good writer.
But what she didn't notice was that while she was admiring the charm of the character, she had already gradually been attracted to Middle-earth.
Arda, Lothlorien, Mordor, Rivendell, the Shire...
(End of this chapter)